Tanzanian Wildlife Safari

After landing at Kilimanjaro International Airport, you will be greeted and transfered to your hotel in Arusha. For those on the Mount Kilimanjaro trek, you will be returning to Arusha on this day. Tomorrow, we will begin our Wildlife Safari.
Photo Credit: Dann Landau-Gahres

Today, traverse the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater into the legendary Serengeti National Park, the largest national park in Tanzania, which covers 14,763 square kilometers at an altitude of 1,737 meters. It is true to its Maasai name, Siringet, meaning endless plains.

The spectacle of predator versus prey dominates Tanzania’s greatest park. Golden-maned lion prides feast on the abundance of plain grazers. Solitary leopards haunt the acacia trees lining the Seronera River, while a high density of cheetahs prowls the southeastern plains. Almost uniquely, all three African jackal species occur here, alongside the spotted hyena and a host of more elusive small predators, ranging from the insectivorous aardwolf to the beautiful serval cat.

As enduring as the game-viewing is the liberating sense of space that characterizes the Serengeti Plains, stretching across sunburnt savannah to a shimmering golden horizon at the end of the earth. Yet, after the rains, this golden expanse of grass is transformed into an endless green carpet flecked with wildflowers. And there are also wooded hills and towering termite mounds, rivers lined with fig trees and acacia woodland stained orange by dust.

Today, spend the whole day exploring Serengeti. Every year, triggered by the rains, more than a million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelle gather to undertake the long trek to new grazing lands in Serengeti, but Tanzania’s first and most famous national park is also known for large concentrations of lions, leopards, and other animals.

Even when the migration is quiet, the Serengeti offers arguably the most scintillating game-viewing in Africa: great herds of buffalo, smaller groups of elephant and giraffe, and thousands upon thousands of eland, topi, kongoni, impala and Grant’s gazelle.

But there is more to Serengeti than large mammals. Gaudy agama lizards and rock hyraxes scuffle around the surfaces of the park’s isolated granite koppies. A full 100 varieties of dung beetle have been recorded, as have 500-plus bird species, ranging from the outsized ostrich and bizarre secretary bird of the open grassland, to the black eagles that soar effortlessly above the Lobo Hills.
Photo Credit: Dann Landau-Gahres

The day starts with a sunrise game drive, where you’ll have the rewarding experience of seeing the animals indulging in their breakfast shortly after you’ve had your own.

Then, begin the drive to the Ngorongoro Crater with an afternoon stop within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area at the Olduvai Gorge. It is here that Dr. Louis Leakey and family discovered the remains of Homo Hablis or “handy man” regarded as mankind’s first step on the ladder of human evolution, proving his theory that man had his origins in Africa. But many more fossils have been discovered here, including those of prehistoric elephants, giant horned sheep and enormous ostriches. Footprints of humanoids believed to be three million years old have also been found. A fascinating museum houses replicas and actual artifacts found on site.
Photo Credit: Dann Landau-Gahres

Begin with an early morning departure to head to Ngorongoro Crater. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which lies between the Lake Manyara National Parks the Serengeti, boasts the largest unbroken, inactive, and unflooded caldera in the world. Perhaps having once been about the same size as Mount Kilimanjaro, when the volcanic activity subsided it collapsed inward, resulting in a crater 11 miles across. You’ll have a picnic lunch at the bottom of the Ngorongoro crater in mid afternoon, before beginning your ascent back up the sides of the crater.

Deemed the eighth wonder of the world, the Ngorongoro Crater is about 68 square kilometers in area and the floor lies over 700 meters below its rim from which there are breathtaking views. Its enclosed area affords guaranteed views of game, including the endangered black rhino. Its soda lake hosts a large flock of lesser flamingoes.

The crater is one of the most densely crowded game areas in the world and is home to an estimated 30,000 animals. Supported by year round supply of water and fodder, the park supports a vast variety of animals, which include vast herds of wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, eland warthog, hippo, giant elephants and a small population of black rhino. Another big draw to this picturesque park is it dense population of predators, which include lions, hyenas, jackals cheetahs and the ever elusive leopard, which sometimes requires a trained eye to spot.

After an amazing experience in wild Tanzania, today is your chance for any last shopping before being transported to the airport.